Essential Albums, released in 2011, compiles the Stax label's remastered/expanded versions of Hot Buttered Soul (1969), Shaft (1969), and the double-disc Black Moses (1971), all of which were released individually in 2009. The first two albums are as essential as late-'60s and early-'70s soul gets, while the sprawling Black Moses is pretty close to it. All three topped Billboard's R&B Albums chart and represent Hayes' most creative and finest album-length work. When the set -- a sturdy box holding the three individual releases, with flimsy stickers slapped onto it -- came out, it retailed for roughly the same cost as the sum of the three reissues. ~ Andy Kellman